Promotional Video

Portrait of an Artist

Promoting business through engaging story

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach in creating a promotional film! In this case study, you’ll see how we went about Daniel James Yeomans’ video production. Every promotional story is a journey of discovery. It’s about identifying what really needs to be said and how we can say it in a meaningful and engaging way.

Who is Daniel James Yeomans?

Daniel’s story starts out three months before we picked up a camera. We attended his open day at the art studio and it was from that moment we started to learn more about him. We got to see how Daniel interacted with the many people visiting the studio and it was obvious how at ease he made everyone feel. His passion for art was plain to see. A couple of weeks later we met Daniel at a local coffee shop and talked through many aspects of his life and his passions amongst other topics. The discussion went right back to the beginning of his story and we picked up on things which would become important to the film.

Over the course of the three months, it was clear that a promotional film needed to communicate some important and fundamental things. Primarily, it needed to convey that if you were going to have a portrait painted of yourself… that you’d want Daniel to do it. And even if you hadn’t considered having a portrait before, we wanted to create the desire and the possibility.

…you need to have that connection and know that Daniel will create a portrait of how you would like to be remembered.

To do this, the film would need to make the viewer feel like they knew Daniel. Why is this important? Because if you are going to commission a portrait for yourself (or for a loved one), you need to have that connection and know that Daniel will create a portrait of how you would like to be remembered. The film needed to show that Daniel is a lovely, friendly and is very approachable and easy going. It also needed to show how passionate he is and the extraordinary quality of his art. His portraits feel like they are living representations of the sitters before him. This is in part because Daniel paints from life. His art records the animation of his sitters, which is a critical part of the story. And finally, the film needed to show the process in some form.

Daniel busy at work.

How we told Daniel’s story

The process of seeing a painting evolve and come to life is filled with anticipation and excitement. To reveal this we decided to show a sitter going through the journey from the beginning. There’s something believable when you see how something starts out. All these types of considerations became part of the story’s design and structure. Showing a painting from start to finish is enough to communicate the kind of process that Daniel uses. When the visuals are put in context with the narrative of the story, you don’t have to explain the process through dialogue. This is a really important point to highlight. Its about knowing when to explain something and when not to… an example of offering an explanation would be when Daniel highlighted the differences between painting from a photograph and painting from life. This was an incredibly important aspect to cover. To explain further…

It’s up to the promotional film to inform the viewer about these key points and to convey the main selling points of the business.

Daniel’s approach to portraiture affords him the opportunity to really get to know his sitters. This makes a significant difference when it comes to capturing the essence of a person within a single painting. The process of painting from life allows for the compression of time, and for this to be recorded into a two-dimensional painting with Daniel’s extraordinary talent. Having said that, there are amazing artists who can make beautiful paintings from photographs. The expression and detail is different, as Daniel points out in the film. However, its up to the potential sitter to make a decision on which choice is right for them. It’s up to the promotional film to inform the viewer about these key points and to convey the main selling points of the business. For example, you don’t buy a gas cooker without knowing a little about an electric one. Identifying these kinds of details and covering them, as part of the narrative will engage the audience in wanting to understand what makes Daniel standout and what is right for them. Understanding and identifying these kinds of details come through spending time and really getting to understand what’s important for the story.

Filming the supporting video footage for the film.

Passion & story is what drives a promotional film

It’s incredible how engaging it is to see somebody who’s passionate about something and how they convey the world as they see it. Daniel’s passion for art and portraiture is profound! You are hooked from the very first few seconds of the film. A successful promotional film will always be one that uses story and passion in huge quantities to change hearts and minds. Story is an amazing vehicle to communicate understanding. It is often said that people buy into the “why” you do something, rather than “what” you do. Daniel’s “why” is driven by his passion for art. It was a calling and he took on 4 jobs for 2 years to be able to save up enough money, in order to be able to learn from the masters in Florence, Italy. Passion is a driver and it is exciting! That’s why passion has to be a critical part of a promotional film.

The more we learnt about Daniel and his story, the more informed we became in how to compose and capture the shots. Camera movement, lighting, exposure, sound, etc… these all form part of the visual narrative. How a film “feels” is an accumulation of all the small decisions that take place. The camera settings, colour, the position of the camera and so on… they all contribute in making a story that has purpose, is engaging and has impact.

Daniel making progress on another amazing portrait.

Learn more about Daniel

You can discover more about Daniel’s extraordinary work by looking at his website. He has a large gallery to browse through and he keeps his blog updated with various projects and expeditions where he create’s his new masterpieces. Daniel has his contact details on his website if you are interested in commissioning him for your own masterpiece.

Behind the scenes on Daniel’s video production

Here’s a few photos taking a look at how we captured many of the scenes of Daniel’s film. A video production allows for many opportunities to capture photographs to be used for marketing purposes.